Labor: Settlement in Charleston

The ordeal of Charleston had seemed impossible to remedy. During the 100-day strike by nonprofessional black hospital workers, there were mass arrests, curfews, patrols by the National Guard, the threat of a sympathy strike that would have closed the port and the ever-present possibility of serious racial violence. Every attempt at settlement collapsed—until last week.

By then, the pressure of a coalition of common sense had proved too much for Dr. William McCord, director of the Medical College Complex and a stubborn opponent of union recognition. Governor Robert McNair had long been demanding a peaceful conclusion. The local business community wanted an agreement, and the Nixon Administration sought to produce an acceptable formula. Then, at the urging of federal mediators and a newly formed citizens committee, talks began. They featured an interesting extra ingredient. In the middle of one session, Dr. McCord was summoned to take a telephone call from White House Aide Harry Dent, former Republican chairman of South Carolina. The details of the message were secret, but an agreement was soon reached.

The settlement saved face for both sides. Medical College Hospital, the larger of the two institutions being struck, agreed to rehire all strikers, including the dozen whose dismissal touched off the walkout. It did not agree to formal union recognition, which is forbidden by state laws covering public employees. But it did consent to a grievance procedure in which a union member can assist workers, and it approved an employee credit union that would allow a form of dues checkoff. As far as the union is concerned, these concessions amount to de facto recognition.

Both Ralph Abernathy, the civil rights leader who had supported the strike to the point of going to jail, and Moe Foner, secretary of the organizing committee for the Drug and Hospital Employees Union, were pleased by the outcome. They had good reason. The strike renewed the partnership between the labor and civil rights movements and represented a much needed victory for the advocates of activist nonviolence. The union's objective is to organize the nation's 1,500,000 nonprofessional hospital workers, many of whom are black. As the settlement was being announced, union men were on their way to Baltimore to begin working with the 1,200 semiskilled workers at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.